


In the Bulrushes

by adreadfulidea



Category: Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Jewish Comics Day, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 18:09:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7064557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adreadfulidea/pseuds/adreadfulidea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ava Shapiro stepped into the classroom with a fresh box of chalkboard erasers under her arm. Before she could set them down a movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention, quick and strangely blurred. She turned towards it and blinked in surprise.</p><p>“Hi,” said the little boy that she could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Bulrushes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Jewish Comics Day on June 1, 2016.

 

 

 

Ava Shapiro stepped into the classroom with a fresh box of chalkboard erasers under her arm. Before she could set them down a movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention, quick and strangely blurred. She turned towards it and blinked in surprise.

“Hi,” said the little boy that she could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago.

He was a cute kid, about five years old with dark hair and chubby dimpled cheeks. His eyes were an uncommonly bright shade of blue.

“Hello,” she replied. He wasn’t one of her students, but maybe he was waiting for a parent to pick him up? Yet class had been over for half an hour. “What’s your name?”

“Clark,” he said, and clambered up on one of the desks. She put the box on the floor so she could steady him. “What’s yours?”

“Ava,” she said. “I’m a teacher here. Are you waiting for your mommy or daddy, Clark?”

“Nope,” he said. “They don’t know where I am. So they can’t come get me. I’m having an adventure.”

 _Great_. That was exactly what she wanted to hear. “What are your parent’s names, honey? Do you know them?”

“Duh,” he said. “Mom and Dad.” And then, distracted: “I can jump real high. Wanna see?”

“Not right now,” she said, and picked him up off the desk. He looked disappointed but didn’t protest. She settled him into a chair and sat down across from him.

“Okay, Clark,” she said. “How did you get here, if your parents didn’t bring you?”

He swung his stubby legs back and forth. “I ran. I can run pretty fast.”

“Ran from where?”

“The farm.”

Which could be anywhere, or belonging to anyone. It was farm country. She didn’t want to call the police unless it was absolutely necessary - people in the area let their kids go pretty far afield while they were playing around here. Ava thought it was kind of weird, but she was a city girl.

“Do you have a last name, Clark?”

“Yup,” he said. “It’s Kent.” He pronounced it with a hard t - _Ken-tuh_ \- like he was still learning to say it.

“Kent,” she said, puzzling it over. “Oh, _Kent_.” She knew Martha Kent by sight, if not socially, and had heard that she and her husband were adopting a boy. They were known to be responsible, and not the kind of parents who let their five year old go wandering by himself. “Excuse me a minute. I just need to use the phone.”

She called from behind the desk so she could watch him and make sure he didn’t run off as soon as her back was turned.

Martha wasn’t home but Jonathan was, and he was frantic. “I can’t believe he got so far,” he said. “I swear I only took my eyes off him for a second.”

“It’s fine, Mr. Kent,” she reassured him. “I know how fast small children can be. I’ll keep him here until you arrive.”

Clark stayed politely in his chair for the duration of the conversation. To reward him she brought him a lollipop from the desk drawer, as well as a selection of storybooks. They were simplified Torah stories, in large-print Hebrew for the children.

“Pick one and I’ll read it to you,” she said. His eyes lit up.

She expected him to go for Joseph and his coat of many colors, which was always popular among the students, or David and Goliath, which had the two characters in an action pose on the cover. Instead he pointed to Moses, who was being tucked safely in his basket by his mother.

“Who’s that?” he asked, the lollipop sticking out of his mouth.

“Moses,” she said. “He’s very important to my people. He led us out of slavery.”

“Why is he floating on a river?” Clark asked. “Where is he going?”

“He’s at the beginning of a very long journey,” she said, and opened up the book and started to read.

 

 

 


End file.
